Sun Country Pilots File to Open Contract Negotiations

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn.—Sun Country Airlines (SCA) pilots, represented by the Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l (ALPA), have delivered notice to their management that they will open negotiations on a new pilot contract. Leaders of ALPA’s Sun Country Master Executive Council (MEC) submitted an official Notice to Bargain during a meeting last Friday with the airline’s CEO and SVP Flight Operations.

“With the airline rapidly expanding its freight operation and generating good profits, now is the time to open talks,” said MEC chair Captain Sam Larson.

“Our airline and the industry as a whole have dramatically changed since our last contract was ratified in 2021. We were coming out of Covid and still predominantly a passenger airline,” Larson said. “We need a new agreement that reflects the airline we are now and raises the standard of our contract in line with improvements secured by other pilot groups.”

Sun Country reported its highest-ever second-quarter profit earlier this year, as it added new Boeing 737NG freighters to its fleet. It expects to have 20 freighters in service flying for Amazon Air by September 2025, as well as 45 passenger aircraft.

“Management likes to remind us how Sun Country is ‘unique’ in the aviation world because very few airlines have the know-how and capacity to conduct scheduled service, freighter, and charter operations simultaneously. We agree, but our current contract doesn’t recognize that uniqueness,” Larson said. “We need a contract that is as unique as the flying we do, and working with the company, that is what we plan to achieve.”

Sun Country’s current pilot contract becomes amendable in December 2025.

Founded in 1931, ALPA is the largest airline pilot union in the world and represents more than 80,000 pilots at 43 U.S. and Canadian airlines, including more than 670 Sun Country pilots.

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